Speaking to Hindustan Times, Tupe said cartelisation in the PMC was very common. Recently, the 24x7 water project tenders were scrapped for the same reason to pre-empt any inquiry. The Competition Commission of India is bringing out all those issues on record which we were speaking of for the last many days,” he said.

puneUpdated: Oct 11, 2017 17:04 IST

Abhay Khairnar Hindustan Times, Pune

One of the biogas plants erected by PMC on Ghole road in Pune.(Pratham Gokhale/HT Photo)

Leader of Opposition in the PMC, Chetan Tupe (NCP) has accused the Pune Municipal Corporation administration of mismanaging the solid waste management issue and driving it to a point of crisis every few years to cater to vested interests.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Tupe said cartelisation in the PMC was very common. Recently, the 24x7 water project tenders were scrapped for the same reason to pre-empt any inquiry. The Competition Commission of India is bringing out all those issues on record which we were speaking of for the last many days,” he said.

The NCP leader pointed out that a garbage crisis hits the city whenever any big garbage processing plant is in the pipeline. A pattern is clearly visible over the past years, he said. Whenever the garbage issue reaches a peak, the civic establishment finds it very easy to get approvals for installation of garbage processing plants, he said.

He accused the PMC of wasting money at every stage of the SWM (solid waste management) process. In 2007, Pune’s population was 25 lakh and garbage generation was 850 metric tonne per day. The population of the city today is 32 lakh and garbage generation is 1600 metric tonne. He asked if the population had grown by just seven lakhs how come, the garbage generation has almost doubled? The reason, he said, is because the PMC is paying “tipping fee” for processing per tonne of garbage. More garbage processing plants means more tipping fees, he charged.

The NCP leader also pointed out that while PMC was spending crores of public funds on erecting new plants, most of the previous plants had become defunct. He demanded a thorough investigation of the entire garbage collection process and mismanagement in the city.